London room rents have fallen by 1%, says a new report from SpareRoom.co.uk.

The research concludes that the average price of renting a room in London has fallen on average from £755 in Q4 2015 to £748 in Q4 2016.

Rooms with an EC postcode have seen the biggest falls in rent, down by 5%.

Drops in London rent. Graphic: Spareroom

The cheapest places to rent, says the report, is in London's north east and south east: Abbey Wood (SE2) has an average rent of £541, while in Upper Edmonton (N18) it's £530.

"London is just one of three towns and cities seeing room rental decline over the last 12 months," claims Spareroom.

Rises in London rent. Graphic: Spareroom

But the rental market is still hardly all beer and skittles. For one thing, EC postcodes may be cheaper than before, but it's still the most expensive area to rent in London.

Southgate and Dulwich — both well out of the centre — are now in the fastest rising postcodes, with increases of 8%.

Graphic: Spareroom

Rents in Chelsea, meanwhile, shot up by 12%, while in the same period, rents in the St Paul's postcode EC4 rose by 40%. Although, come on, who actually lives there, aside from the Lord Mayor of London?

Graphic: Spareroom

And not everyone agrees with SpareRoom's findings: another 2017 report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) claims that from January 2015 to December 2016, rents in London rose on average by 2.4%.